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eSIM for Mongolia

eSIM for Mongolia

Viasimo's Mongolia eSIM starts at $5.99 for 1 GB over 7 days, running on Mobicom with 4G LTE where available. Plans last 3 to 180 days, arrive by email in minutes and install from your phone's settings, with no app.

Works everywhere in Mongolia

  • Arkhangai Province
  • Bayan-Ölgii Province
  • Bayankhongor
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Duration

Quantity
1
Unlimited data · 3 Days$28.99
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Unlimited data · 3 Days ×1

$28.99
Does my phone take an eSIM? Check now

Dial *#06# on your phone. If you see an EID number, your phone takes an eSIM. Most phones sold since 2019 do.

Not sure it works on your phone? Check compatibility
Network

Which networks does the Mongolia eSIM use?

Host networks: Mobicom

Your eSIM picks one automatically; you do not choose or switch between them.

Data
1 GB – 20 GB or unlimited
Validity
3–180 days
Speed
4G LTE
Hotspot / tethering
Supported on most devices
Activation
Starts when you first connect in your destination
Speed management
Roughly 2-3 GB per day at full speed, sometimes less depending on the local carrier, then reduced
Top-ups
Add more data from your account, before the plan expires
Text messages (SMS)
Data only: use an app for verification codes
Connects via
Singapore
Unused validity
180 days before it must be installed
Setting up Buy, scan the QR code we email you, and switch on the travel line when you land. How it works
Choosing a plan

How much data do you need?

The allowances below are our sizing recommendations, not measurements. The plan beside each one is the cheapest option on this page that covers it.

Recommended data allowances matched to the plans sold for this destination
You arePlan forCheapest plan that covers it
LightMaps, messaging and the occasional lookupAbout 1 GB a week$5.991 GB, 7 days
TypicalMaps, social, photos and some browsingAbout 3 to 7 GB a week$21.995 GB, 30 days
HeavyVideo streaming, video calls and uploads10 GB a week or more$37.9910 GB, 30 days
Working or sharingTethering a laptop, calls and cloud sync20 GB a week or more$62.99Unlimited, 7 days

Work it out from your own habits

What a week abroad costs

eSIM, local SIM or roaming?

Charged per day

Your carrier roaming

Queue and plastic

A SIM at the airport

$5.99

Viasimo, one bundle

Only the Viasimo figure is a price: it comes from today’s live catalog. The other two rows are directional, not quoted rates.

About this eSIM

Mongolia is the hardest kind of country to describe honestly in coverage terms, because the answer changes completely depending on whether you are in a town or between them. MobiCom carries our traffic here, on 4G LTE, and in Ulaanbaatar and the provincial centres that is a perfectly good connection. Out on the steppe, in the Gobi, or up in the Altai, you should plan your days on the assumption that you are offline and treat any signal as a bonus.

Getting online when you land

The airport sits a long way outside Ulaanbaatar and the transfer takes a while, so being connected before you get in a vehicle is worth the two minutes it costs. Install the profile at home over wifi, keep it switched off, and enable it once you are through the terminal.

Give the phone time to attach; it may test both networks before it settles on one. Set the plan as your data line and leave your usual number on the primary SIM for calls and codes, with roaming disabled on that line.

Do your setup, your map downloads and your message checking while you are still in the city. Ulaanbaatar is where everything works, and most Mongolia itineraries involve leaving it within a day or two for somewhere that will not let you fix anything.

The networks you'll be on

MobiCom carries this eSIM, on 4G LTE, and your phone attaches to it automatically. In the capital you will generally sit on 4G/LTE without thinking about it.

Away from the cities, the useful thing to know is that 3G travels further than 4G/LTE and often survives where the faster connection does not. When your phone drops from one to the other in a provincial town, that is the system working correctly rather than a fault. Messaging apps and simple map tiles will still load; video will not. If the connection stalls in a marginal spot, cycling airplane mode occasionally helps.

Where coverage holds, and where it thins

Good: Ulaanbaatar in its entirety, Darkhan and Erdenet, and the provincial capitals. Most soum centres, the small district towns scattered across the country, have a tower, which means the pattern on a long drive is islands of signal separated by hours of nothing.

Effectively nothing: the open steppe between settlements, the Gobi away from the camps and towns, the mountain valleys of the Altai in the far west, the northern taiga around Khövsgöl outside the lakeside villages, and the long unpaved crossings that make up most of an overland itinerary. Terelj, close to the capital, is better than the true wilderness but still uneven once you leave the main valley road.

Ger camps vary enormously. Some have a satellite connection they will let guests use; many have nothing at all, and none of them should be treated as a guaranteed way to get online. If a plan depends on you being reachable on a given evening, confirm before you leave the last town rather than after.

What you'll actually use data for here

In the capital: ride-hailing and taxi apps, restaurant and hotel bookings, translation of Cyrillic signage, and buying train tickets or confirming domestic flights, which change more often than anyone would like.

On the road: mapping, and specifically offline mapping. There are stretches of this country where the route is a set of tracks across grass rather than a road, and your driver navigates by landmark. Having the terrain cached on your own phone is a sanity check rather than a replacement for a good guide.

Weather is the other genuinely important one, and it matters here in a way it does not in a gentler climate. Conditions in the Gobi and the mountains change fast, dirt tracks become impassable after rain, and river crossings that were fine in the morning are not fine in the afternoon. Load the forecast whenever you have signal, not when you need it.

Photo uploads are best saved for the city. In the countryside they will either fail or eat a disproportionate share of a slow connection while you are trying to send a message that matters.

Before you fly

Check that the handset is unlocked and eSIM capable, and install the plan before you leave home.

Download offline maps of every region on your route, not just the capital, and do it on a good connection before departure. Save your ger camp names, your driver's and guide's numbers, and your accommodation addresses as screenshots.

Cold is the practical enemy. Outside the warm months, temperatures here will drain a battery from full to dead far quicker than you expect, and a phone that dies is a phone with no maps. Carry a power bank, keep it and the phone in an inside pocket rather than an outer one, and charge whenever a vehicle or a camp generator gives you the chance.

Finally, set expectations with people at home before you go. Days without a reply are normal on a Mongolian itinerary and do not mean anything has gone wrong.

Unlimited runs at full speed up to a fair-use limit, then continues slower.

Before you buy

Important to know

  • This is a data-only eSIM. It carries no calls or SMS on its own number.
  • Your existing number stays on your primary SIM, so calls and verification texts keep working.
  • Your phone must support eSIM, and some carrier-locked phones cannot install one.
  • Signal varies with location, terrain, congestion and your handset. Dense urban areas are consistently better served than remote ones.
  • The eSIM selects a host network automatically. You cannot pick or switch between them.
  • Unlimited plans run at full speed up to a fair-use limit, then continue at a reduced speed. Read the fair usage policy
Looking for more information?

Frequently asked questions

Does an eSIM work in Mongolia?

Yes. Your Mongolia eSIM connects automatically the moment you arrive, with no roaming fees and nothing to set up at the airport. The host networks it can use are Mobicom. Coverage runs on 4G LTE. There is no 5G on our host network in Mongolia yet.

Do I get 5G in Mongolia?

No. Mobicom do not yet offer 5G to visitors in Mongolia, so your eSIM connects over 4G LTE or slower. Anyone claiming 5G for this destination is quoting a spec sheet, not the network you will actually get.

Which is the biggest mobile network in Mongolia?

Mobicom, founded in 1996 and majority-owned by Japan's KDDI since 2016, was Mongolia's first mobile operator and held more than a third of the market by 2015. Unitel is its main rival, and the two are the country's leading networks. Our eSIM connects to Mobicom on 4G LTE. Coverage is good in Ulaanbaatar and provincial centres, but large rural areas have no signal at all.

How do I get a safe taxi in Ulaanbaatar?

The UK Foreign Office suggests asking your hotel or restaurant to order a car, hailing only licensed taxis such as VIP Taxis, or using the UBCab app, which lets you track your trip. Avoid being out alone at night, and allow extra time, as the city's roads are heavily congested.

Do I need to register when I arrive in Mongolia?

Hotels and landlords register guests through an app. If you are travelling independently or staying with friends, you must register yourself with the Mongolian Immigration Agency, which you can do without visiting an office. You will receive a digital residence permit to carry with you. Also make sure your passport is stamped on entry.

Do I need a permit to travel near Mongolia's borders?

Often, yes. Mongolian authorities can treat areas up to 100 km inside the border as border zones, and foreigners are not routinely allowed there without permission from the State Frontier Guard Authority. This can affect trips to the far west and north. Ask your tour operator to arrange the permit and keep a copy on your phone.

How much data do I need for 7 days in Mongolia?

For 7 days in Mongolia, Viasimo sells 1 GB for $5.99 and unlimited data for $62.99. Our sizing recommendation, not a measurement: maps, messaging and the occasional lookup, about 1 GB a week; maps, social, photos and some browsing, about 3 to 7 GB a week. The data calculator on this site works it out from how you actually use your phone.

Installing, keeping your number, topping up and hotspot work the same everywhere: see how it works →

Know before you go

Mongolia: what to know before you land

Our eSIM in Mongolia connects to Mobicom, the country's first mobile operator and one of its two main networks, on 4G LTE. In Ulaanbaatar it is enough for UBCab, the trackable taxi app that UK travel advice recommends. Outside the cities, plan for the paperwork as much as the coverage: self-registration if you travel independently, and permits for border areas that can extend 100 km inland.

Emergency
  • 102 police
  • 103 ambulance
  • 101 fire
Plugs
CE 230V
Currency
Mongolian tögrög (MNT)

Main airports

  • UBN Chinggis Khaan International Airport (Ulaanbaatar)
Apps worth having UBCabWhatsAppGoogle Translate

Mobicom, Unitel and when you need a satellite phone

Mobicom was set up in 1996 as a Mongolian-Japanese joint venture to run the country's first mobile service, and it held over a third of the market by 2015. Japan's KDDI took majority control in 2016. Its main rival, Unitel, was quicker to launch each new generation of network, and Mobicom now advertises 5G alongside LTE. Our eSIM uses Mobicom's 4G LTE, so expect 4G in towns rather than 5G.

The UK Foreign Office is blunt about the countryside: rural Mongolia has large areas with no network coverage, and outside the capital only about 10% of roads are tarmacked, with minimal signposting. For rural driving it recommends carrying a back-up such as a satellite phone, plenty of water and food, and sharing your route and expected arrival times with someone.

If you are on a tour, ask the operator whether the driver carries a satellite phone, and save its number before you leave Ulaanbaatar. If you are self-driving, hire or buy one. Your mobile data will come back in soum centres along the way, so use those stops to send updates and check the weather, which can change quickly. Wifi is widely available in hotels, restaurants and bars in Ulaanbaatar, so do large downloads there.

UBCab, licensed taxis and pickpockets in Ulaanbaatar

The UK Foreign Office suggests three ways to get around Ulaanbaatar safely: ask your hotel, restaurant or bar to order a car; hail only licensed taxis such as VIP Taxis; or use the UBCab app, which lets you track the journey. Having data as soon as you land at Chinggis Khaan International Airport means you can book a car from arrivals rather than negotiating with drivers outside. The FCDO also advises against being out alone at night.

Ulaanbaatar's roads are heavily congested, so allow far longer than a map's estimate for airport runs and evening plans.

Pickpockets work in markets and crowded places, and the risk rises during Tsagaan Sar, the lunar new year, and Naadam in July, when the city fills up. Groups of children and teenagers sometimes surround people for money as they get into cars or enter bars and restaurants. Protect your phone:

  • Keep it in a zipped bag worn on your front, not in a back pocket.
  • Check your route before you step out, so you are not holding it up on the street.
  • Back up photos to the cloud every evening on hotel wifi.

Emergency numbers are 102 for police, 103 for ambulance and 101 for fire. Our eSIM is data only, so call from your home SIM on roaming or a local phone.

Visa-free entry, online registration and border-zone permits

UK passport holders can visit Mongolia for tourism visa-free for up to 30 days until 31 December 2026. Check the latest rules for your nationality before you book, especially for travel in 2027.

Registration is now digital. Hotels and landlords register guests through an app. If you are travelling independently or staying with friends, you must register yourself with the Mongolian Immigration Agency, which can be done without going to an office, and you receive a digital residence permit that you should carry at all times. A phone with data makes this straightforward; save the permit offline once you have it.

Make sure your passport is stamped when you arrive, as a missing stamp can cause problems on departure. Cash of US$10,000 or more must be declared on arrival, or it may be seized when you leave.

The detail that catches out overlanders is the border zone. The authorities can treat land up to 100 km inside the border as a border area, and foreigners are not routinely allowed there without permission from the State Frontier Guard Authority. That can affect trips to the far west Altai and the northern lakes, so ask your tour operator to arrange the permit and keep a copy on your phone.

In winter, temperatures can fall to -40°C and blizzard warnings are frequent.

Researched October 2026 · 5 sources
7-day itinerary

Seven days in Mongolia: Ulaanbaatar, Terelj, Hustai and the Orkhon Valley

A central-Mongolia loop for a first visit, best done with a driver-guide: the capital's monasteries and museums, a ger night in Gorkhi-Terelj, wild takhi horses at Hustai, the Elsen Tasarkhai dunes and the old imperial capital at Kharkhorin.

Length
7 days
Bases
5

When to go June to September is the main season, with August often the most settled; July is busiest because of the Naadam festival from 11 to 13 July, and from October nights on the steppe drop well below freezing.

  1. Day 1 Ulaanbaatar

    Ulaanbaatar: Sükhbaatar Square and Gandan

    Chinggis Khaan International Airport is roughly an hour from the centre in normal traffic.

    Start at Sükhbaatar Square in front of the Government Palace and its large seated statue of Chinggis Khaan. Visit the Chinggis Khaan National Museum nearby for the history of the steppe empires, then take a taxi to Gandan Monastery, Mongolia's largest working monastery, to see the tall standing Buddha in its main temple. Order taxis through UBCab or your hotel, and allow far longer than maps suggest in traffic.

    Signal Mobicom 4G is good across central Ulaanbaatar and at the airport. This eSIM uses LTE only, so you will not see 5G even where Mobicom advertises it.

  2. Day 2 Gorkhi-Terelj National Park (ger camp)

    The Chinggis Khaan statue and Gorkhi-Terelj

    Ulaanbaatar to Terelj, roughly 1.5–2 hours by road with a stop at the statue.

    Drive east to Tsonjin Boldog to see the giant steel equestrian statue of Chinggis Khaan and climb to the viewing platform on the horse's head. Continue into Gorkhi-Terelj National Park, about 70 km from the city, to see Turtle Rock and walk up to the Aryabal meditation temple on the hillside. Spend the night in a ger camp and ride a horse with a local herder if you want.

    Signal 4G holds on the main road and near Terelj village, but drops in the side valleys and around many ger camps. Download offline maps before you leave the city.

  3. Day 3 Hustai National Park

    Hustai National Park and the takhi

    Terelj to Hustai, roughly 3–3.5 hours by road via Ulaanbaatar.

    Drive back past Ulaanbaatar and west to Hustai National Park, where takhi, or Przewalski's horses, were reintroduced to the wild after dying out in Mongolia. Stop at the visitor centre for the story of the reintroduction, then go out with a ranger in the early evening, when the herds come down from the hills to drink. Keep your distance and use a long lens.

    Signal Coverage is decent near the main road but weak inside the park, with no signal in many valleys. Check that your driver carries a satellite phone for the days ahead.

  4. Day 4 Elsen Tasarkhai (ger camp)

    The Elsen Tasarkhai dunes

    Hustai to Elsen Tasarkhai, roughly 3 hours by road.

    Head west along the main road to Elsen Tasarkhai, a long strip of sand dunes that runs between grassland and mountains, sometimes called the mini-Gobi. Walk the dunes in the late afternoon light, try a short camel ride with a herding family, and look across to the rocky slopes of Khögnö Khan, a protected mountain area with a small monastery.

    Signal Signal comes and goes along the highway and is weak or absent once you are out on the dunes. Treat the ger camp night as offline.

  5. Day 5 Kharkhorin

    Kharkhorin and Erdene Zuu

    Elsen Tasarkhai to Kharkhorin, about 1.5 hours by road.

    Drive on to Kharkhorin, on the site of Karakorum, the thirteenth-century capital of the Mongol empire. Spend the day at Erdene Zuu, Mongolia's oldest surviving Buddhist monastery, inside its wall of 108 white stupas; tours of the old temples need a ticket. Visit the Kharakhorum Museum for finds from the imperial city, and look for the stone turtles that once marked its boundaries.

    Signal Mobicom 4G is available in Kharkhorin town and at Erdene Zuu. It is a good place to send photos and check in before the more remote day tomorrow.

  6. Day 6 Kharkhorin

    The Orkhon Valley and Tövkhön monastery

    Kharkhorin to the Tövkhön car park roughly 2 hours each way on rough tracks, plus about an hour's walk up.

    Spend the day in the Orkhon Valley, a UNESCO cultural landscape of pastures, nomad camps and archaeological sites. Drive south-west on dirt tracks to the foot of Tövkhön monastery, then walk up through the forest to the small temple on the ridge, linked to the seventeenth-century monk and sculptor Zanabazar. Take in the view across the valley before returning to Kharkhorin.

    Signal Expect no reliable signal for most of the day, including the tracks and the climb. Share your route with someone and rely on your driver's satellite phone for emergencies.

  7. Day 7 Ulaanbaatar

    Back to Ulaanbaatar

    Kharkhorin to Ulaanbaatar, roughly 6–7 hours by road.

    Make the long drive back east to Ulaanbaatar on the paved road, stopping for lunch at a roadside canteen. If you arrive in time, visit the Choijin Lama Temple Museum, a former monastery in the city centre with collections of Buddhist art, or browse for felt and cashmere before your flight. Make sure your passport carries an arrival stamp before you head to the airport.

    Signal Signal returns in patches along the highway and becomes strong on the approach to the capital. Book your airport transfer by UBCab or through your hotel once you are back in range.

Staying connected on this route

  1. Download offline maps for central Mongolia before leaving Ulaanbaatar; only a small share of rural roads are paved or signposted.
  2. Ask your tour operator whether the driver carries a satellite phone, and save its number before day two.
  3. The UK has reported fuel shortages in Mongolia in 2026, so confirm with your operator that long drives can go ahead, and save their contact details offline; registration with the Immigration Agency is only needed for stays over 30 days.
  4. Carry a power bank: ger camps often have limited charging, sometimes only from solar panels.
Itinerary sources · 4
Where this comes from

Information and verification

Each block below says what was checked and when. Anything we cannot date, we do not claim.

Prices and plans
Every price and allowance on this page is read from the live catalog, not typed in.
Host networks
The operator list comes from the network partner that carries this eSIM.
Transparent pricing

Mongolia eSIM prices

Mongolia eSIM prices: 3 days
DataPricePer day
Unlimited$28.99$9.66/day
Mongolia eSIM prices: 5 days
DataPricePer day
Unlimited$45.99$9.20/day
Mongolia eSIM prices: 7 days
DataPricePer day
1 GB$5.99$0.86/day
Unlimited$62.99$9.00/day
Mongolia eSIM prices: 10 days
DataPricePer day
Unlimited$86.99$8.70/day
Mongolia eSIM prices: 15 days
DataPricePer day
Unlimited$134.99$9.00/day
Mongolia eSIM prices: 30 days
DataPricePer day
3 GBBest value$13.99$0.47/day
5 GB$21.99$0.73/day
10 GB$37.99$1.27/day
20 GB$77.99$2.60/day
Unlimited$239.99$8.00/day
Mongolia eSIM prices: 60 days
DataPricePer day
Unlimited$479.99$8.00/day
Mongolia eSIM prices: 90 days
DataPricePer day
Unlimited$719.99$8.00/day
Mongolia eSIM prices: 180 days
DataPricePer day
Unlimited$1,419.99$7.89/day

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